New computer: Nokia N800

I’d been curious about the Nokia N800 since Kent Peterson wrote about his this summer. It sounded like pretty much the ideal portable machine: small, light, good resolution, and designed as an internet tablet, suitable for quick lookups in Wikipedia or IMDB. An external brain, in other words. I kept an eye on the price for a while, hoping it would drop below $250, and the week after the N810 was released, it did. So I picked one up.

I also picked up a folding bluetooth keyboard, a Palm Centro smartphone, and a contract with Sprint that gets me 500 minutes of talk time and unlimited data for $30/month. Unfortunately, I didn’t order the Centro through Amazon, as I see now I could have gotten it for less there. Oh well.

After spending some quality time on the Internet Tablet Talk forums, I got the N800 flashed with the latest operating system (which also removed the underclocking of the CPU at the expense of some battery life) and talking with my phone. I now have a device that fits in my shirt pocket, runs a Mozilla-based web browser, and can connect to the internet anywhere there’s an open wifi signal or Sprint EVDO coverage. It is slightly larger than an iPhone, and the interface isn’t nearly as slick, but it runs Linux and there’s a a development environment that’s supported by a large community of users, and which I’ve already figured out well enough to build a “Hello, world” app.

I don’t much care for the built-in email app, but that’s the beauty of this thing–within 10 minutes of deciding the supplied email app wasn’t going to work for me, I had Claws Mail installed and configured to work with my home, work, and gmail accounts. And it comes with Xterm, which means I can use Alpine on it once 1.0 is released (which I’m told is supposed to be soon).

The web browser on the N800 under the 2008 OS is great. I didn’t play with the Opera-based browser it came with (under OS 2007) for very long, so I can’t compare the two, but this one just works. I can use it with Google Reader and Maps, Flickr, LiveJournal, YouTube, and pretty much all the other sites I normally visit. It doesn’t have the processing power to run Desktop Tower Defense, alas, but it does load it and give it a good try. Less CPU-hungry Flash games probably work just fine. And it looks like someone just ported Adblock Plus. Sweet.

What it doesn’t have, compared to the new N810, is this: a built-in GPS, a built-in slide-out keyboard, and a transflective screen for better full-daylight viewing. But the N810 costs (as of right now) almost $250 more. I can get a bluetooth GPS for $50, the bluetooth keyboard cost $30, and when am I going to be outside and needing to use the computer that I won’t be able to find some shade to work in?

It also runs Skype and Gizmo, so if I ever were somewhere with wifi but not phone coverage, I could make calls. Video calls, too, I understand–there’s a pop-out VGA camera on the side. But I never call anyone, and even if I did, I doubt I’d use more in a month than the 500 minutes that came with the cell plan.

Speaking of which, the Centro is a fairly neat device itself. I’ve never had a smartphone before, but I have had a bunch of PalmOS devices (including the original Pilot, made by US Robotics). So I have a bunch of applications from those which all work on my phone now. Cool!

The iGo keyboard is going to take some getting used to, because each key corresponds to multiple characters, depending on which meta key you’ve hit. For example, the “Q” key is “!” if you also press the green Fn button, and “1” if you press the blue Fn button. In practice, the only place this has really thrown me off is when I’m typing a password, which is much more ingrained in muscle memory than other things. That aside, it’s a roughly full size keyboard that folds to the same size as the N800, weighs 195 grams with the two AAA batteries installed (the N800 weighs 217 grams; the Centro, 126), and has pretty good action. It’s definitely worth the $30 I paid, but I have my doubts about the $150 MSRP.

The whole setup, including the charger for the N800, fits in the previously unused space in my camera bag. Like Kent said:

William Gibson noted that “the future is already here — it’s just unevenly distributed.” Now I feel like a bit of that future has distributed itself right into my pocket.

14 thoughts on “New computer: Nokia N800”

That’s very cool. I’ve been having thoughts like that last as well on the day that I realized that I used to say I wanted to have all my useful gadgets to be small enough to throw in my pocket, and now I’ve almost got it.

What keyboard did you get? I have a Nokia 770 and was looking for a cheap bluetooth keyboard but didn’t have much luck.

I like the internet tablet platform but haven’t been using my 770 much since getting a sub-3lb laptop. It isn’t as small, but it provides more utility. Both fit into nearly any bag and I find the 770 + keyboard (the ones that I’ve seen at least) a bit big for pockets.

The Asus eeePC is another machine that is sliding into this category. I hope v2 has a higher resolution display.

That Asus is pretty slick, I have to say. For some reason, though, I feel like once it’s got that form factor, I’d want it to be more powerful. I don’t mind the N800 being a little pokey, because it’s freaking tiny. I think I would mind the Eee being a little pokey, because it’s merely very small.

Does the device have a basic word processing app that you can use in times of internet deprivation? I totally love the idea of having something I could tap away at while waiting/riding on BART. If it has that, then I’m totally sold.

Carlos, it doesn’t come with a word processing app specifically, but it does come with xterm and vi, which would work for some people. It’s pretty simple to get emacs/pico/whatever other console-based editor installed, too. And if there are any decent Gtk-based word processors out there, it wouldn’t be too difficult to port one of them over to it. I haven’t looked yet to see if there’s already a third-party word processor for it, but I probably will soon.

Leo, it works just fine with the Centro, once USBModem is installed on the Centro. I got it working using the instructions here.

Josh, thanks for the instructions of tethering CENTRO to N800, I just got a CENTRO (on SERO), and will buy a N800 once they go back to pre-Christmas prices (below $200). Until then my old N770 will do.

I was thinking about returning CENTRO for a HTC Mogul (consolidating into 1 device, and not needing to learn how to tether), but your instructions make the process sound pretty simple.

A note to LEO, about which SPRINT phone can tether. I read somewhere online that most Samsung, Palm and HTC will tether. But all Motorola’s cannot. That is why I did not get the Q9. Centro is pretty good, portable, if you don’t mind cramped keys. If money is not a problem go for a HTC Mogul.

I read your review of the N800 with interest. I narrowed it down to the Asus EeePC or the N800. I was put off the Nokia by the keyboard. The N800 is ultra ultra portable with an excellent screen but I found the eeepc easier and more intuitive to use, although it is not as small.

One year back I was stuck in 3 choices whether to go with Nokia N95 , N800 or Sony Ericsson P900i.
Finally I chose N95. Later after listening & reading reviews all over net & my personal use, I realized I missed N800 & my decision was not upto the mark. N95 cost me $700 that time, it was its launch days ! now its for around $500 , still I can say N800 rocks. I miss you N800 :(